Four city-owned lots are being redeveloped to host 265 units of housing and 50,000 square feet of commercial space in Roxbury’s heart, Dudley Square. Image courtesy of New Atlantic Development and DREAM Development.

While much of the new multifamily and mixed-use construction in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood has been dominated by community development corporations in recent years, a growing number of market-rate developers are eying the area as land and construction costs put higher-profile neighborhoods off-limits.  

“What we’re seeing is I think every developer in Boston kind of looking for any relief valves,” said Kevin Kennedy, a senior vice president at CBRE’s Boston Consulting Group. “There’s so much competition, increased land values and construction pricing in Boston’s core market.” 

With the MBTA’s Orange Line running down its west side, the Fairmount commuter rail line to its east and the Silver Line bus connecting its historic heart of Dudley Square to the tony South End and downtown, the neighborhood offers an attractive location for developers in the multifamily, hotel and office spaces, Kennedy said. 

“Roxbury has a great diversity of existing asset classes that are really sought-after in today’s investment community,” he added. 

Demand Spills Over 

Spillover from hot areas next door is driving some of the interest from market-rate developers in a neighborhood that still bears the scars of redlining and “urban renewal” programs of decades past, and has historically been the center of black culture in Greater Boston. 

While scouting for his firm’s next project, Joe Holland, a partner in The Holland Cos. came across the former Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association hall on Shetland Street, near the Newmarket commuter rail station and the South Bay shopping center. Snapping up the property in an off-market transaction, the firm won BPDA approval for a 57-unit, 49,693-square-foot apartment building. The design included seven affordable units, per the city’s inclusionary zoning policy, but is being priced to be affordable to young professionals beginning to be priced out of Dorchester’s Polish Triangle and Savin Hill areas, Holland said. 

New amenities in the area have added a shine to what was previously a working-class and industrial part of Roxbury, he said, citing the presence of the Bully Boy distillery and Backlash Beer Co. taprooms, along with Edens’ 750,000-square-foot expansion of the South Bay Center to include 475 residential units, a hotel and restaurants. 

James Sanna

All of the nine market-rate projects proposed or approved in the area since 2017 are below 60 units – averaging 32 units per project – and 50,000 square feet in gross floor area, according to Boston Planning and Development Agency documents. All of them have been located on the neighborhood’s borders with South Boston and Dorchester. 

In recent years, Northeastern has built several new academic buildings on the Roxbury side of the Orange Line tracks and now plans a 350,000-square-foot building supporting its research in robotics and autonomous vehicles at 795 Columbus Ave. and an 800-room dormitory there. 

Community Developers Active 

At the same time, the city, community development corporations and affordable housing-focused developers have continued the work that has seen multifamily and mixed residential/commercial projects with significant affordable housing components totaling over 900,000 square feet proposed or built in Roxbury in recent years, according to BPDA documents.  

Last week, four development proposals took center stage, promising to bring 265 residential units – 203 affordable – and 50,000 square feet of commercial space to city-owned parcels in the middle of Dudley Square. The projects received endorsements from a key neighborhood committee June 3 in a competitive, three-year RFP process run by the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development. The department is also providing some funds to help subsidize the affordable units and holds the keys to four more sites in the square that could be opened for development in a similar manner. 

The highest-profile project, from a team of New Atlantic Development and DREAM Development, would partner with the popular Haley House café on Washington Street to wrap 74 units of condominium and rental housing, including artists’ live/work spaces, around the cafe’s current building, while helping it expand its footprint on the ground floor.  

If the city’s Public Facilities Commission concurs with the neighborhood-led committee, the four projects are expected to begin the Article 80 approval process before the BPDA in August. 

Tremont Crossing’s 515,000 square feet of office and commercial space could dramatically direct industry attention towards Roxbury if it can be completed. Image courtesy of Elkus Manfredi

Wild Cards in the Offing 

While the city of Boston’s RFP process continues for its four Dudley Square properties and officials explore how to dispose of another four, Roxbury appears poised for further growth. 

For future developments, CBRE’s Kennedy said the availability of financing for projects is the only limiting factor he can discern on Roxbury’s future growth potential. 

Holland said he is optimistic market-rate developers will continue to find opportunities in the neighborhood.  

“We see Roxbury, especially the northern half, as having major upside in the next few business cycles. We don’t view Roxbury as being a difficult place in the city to build. We also anticipate a shift in some of the industrial uses around Newmarket,” he said.  

Two major wild cards exist, however, which could attract more attention to the neighborhood in dramatic fashion.  

Lisa Guscott, scion of the legendary Guscott family of business leaders and civil rights icons, is working to revive the Rio Grande, a proposed 26-story, $144 million residential tower envisioned by her late father Kenneth and his brother Cecil in the former Roxbury Institute for Savings building.  

Tremont Crossing, a 7.25-acre, 1.1 million-square-foot project planned by a consortium including Feldco Development, is reportedly slated to break ground some time this year. Development team representatives have reportedly been working on finalizing financing for the $500 million project, located a block from the Orange Line’s Ruggles Station. With 700 units of housing, a Museum of the National Center for African American Artists, 406,0000 square feet of retail and 108,000 square feet of office space at full build-out, the project would be far bigger than any development Roxbury has yet seen. 

“It’s a transformative site,” Kennedy said.